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This visual shows the Arctic sea ice change and the corresponding absorbed solar radiation change during June, July, and August from 2000 through 2014. The Arctic ice pack is the sea ice cover of the Arctic Ocean and its vicinity. The Arctic ice pack undergoes a regular seasonal cycle in which ice melts in spring and summer, reaches a minimum ...
DMSP satellite. Useful satellite data concerning sea ice began in December 1972 with the Electrically Scanning Microwave Radiometer (ESMR) instrument. However, this was not directly comparable with the later SMMR/SSMI, and so the practical record begins in late 1978 with the launch of NASA's Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) satellite., [5] and continues with the Special Sensor ...
Greenland ice sheet as seen from space. An ice sheet is a body of ice which covers a land area of continental size - meaning that it exceeds 50,000 km 2. [4] The currently existing two ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica have a much greater area than this minimum definition, measuring at 1.7 million km 2 and 14 million km 2, respectively.
The Beaufort Gyre contains a mean volume of 800 km 3 of frozen freshwater, or sea ice, based on a mean ice thickness of 2 meters. During the June–July months, the mean seasonal cycle of freshwater content peaks; in this season, sea ice thickness reaches a minimum, implying that the amount of melted sea ice has reached a maximum.
The sea ice volume is calculated with the Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System (PIOMAS), which blends satellite-observed data, such as sea ice concentrations into model calculations to estimate sea ice thickness and volume. Sea ice thickness determines a number of important fluxes such as heat flux between the air and ocean ...
The Arctic sea ice covers less area in the summer than in the winter. The multi-year (i.e. perennial) sea ice covers nearly all of the central deep basins. The Arctic sea ice and its related biota are unique, and the year-round persistence of the ice has allowed the development of ice endemic species, meaning species not found anywhere else.
The Arctic Ocean is the mass of water positioned approximately above latitude 65° N. Arctic Sea Ice refers to the area of the Arctic Ocean covered by ice. The Arctic sea ice minimum is the day in a given year when Arctic sea ice reaches its smallest extent, occurring at the end of the summer melting season, normally during September.
The sea ice at the North Pole is typically around 2 to 3 m (6 ft 7 in to 9 ft 10 in) thick, [65] although ice thickness, its spatial extent, and the fraction of open water within the ice pack can vary rapidly and profoundly in response to weather and climate. [66] Studies have shown that the average ice thickness has decreased in recent years. [67]